


Aquatic Issues

by Cubriffic



Category: Eddsworld - All Media Types
Genre: And eduardo is in denial, But yeah jon is cute as shit in this, I wrote this instead of studying for my exams, Jon isn't dead ya goofs, M/M, Oops, There's a little bit of angst sorry, but it's mostly fluffy, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-09
Updated: 2017-11-24
Packaged: 2019-01-31 06:31:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12676308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cubriffic/pseuds/Cubriffic
Summary: Eduardo is stranded in the middle of the sea, with almost nobody around to help him.But it's not all bad when you have a merman to keep you company.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello yes I spent 2 weeks on this and I'm heccing proud of it
> 
> The uploading schedule will probably be every few days or so?? Only because it's not very long (6 chapters) so I don't want to drag it out
> 
> But yeah this really was an excuse for fluffy EduardoJon stuff

All Eduardo had wanted was one day. One fucking day without being dragged out on some weird adventure by his neighbours. Just a day that he could spend at home drawing, while his roommate did God knows what, probably read. A day to relax and enjoy his life for once.  
But it seemed like the universe wasn’t too fond of Eduardo at the moment.

And that’s how he had ended up here, in a boat out in the sea with his three neighbours and his roommate Mark. The five men had been out since 6am, and it had already reached late-afternoon, with no such luck at catching any fish, except for a few small ones that they had thrown back. It was pretty obvious that everyone was getting restless- Mark had barely looked up from his book since they had arrived, and the others seemed to be struggling to focus, with the exception of Tom, who was aiming a rather large harpoon gun above the water. It also didn’t help that the sky was becoming a dark grey, and the waves below them were beginning to grow bigger.

A yawn escaped Eduardo as he lied down in the semi-small boat. “Jesus Edd, how much longer are we gonna be out here?”

“Dunno.” Eduardo watched as Edd’s expression changed from mild boredness to slight annoyance. The Spanish man honestly had no idea why Edd had invited him to come along with the latter’s friends. It had become pretty clear in the past few months that Eduardo and Edd weren’t exactly the friendliest to each other, unless they both wanted something. Edd returned to looking at his fishing rod, while Eduardo eyed him with slight suspicion.  
“Well, I reckon we should leave soon. Looks like a storm’s about to hit.” Mark’s voice was a surprise to the rest of the men, as he had barely spoken since they had arrived. Eduardo’s gaze to the side to see Mark looking over his book, before quickly returning to reading it.

“Yeah, Edd. When are we leaving?” Matt asked, his ginger hair hidden under a ridiculously over-sized hat. Matt wasn’t looking as bored as his friend, though that was probably because he was currently staring directly into a round, purple mirror. Eduardo almost rolled his eyes at this. Out of the three neighbours, Matt was most definitely the stupidest of the bunch.

Eduardo heard Edd say something in reply, but his brain barely had time to function what he had said, as fatigue began to infect him badly. Eduardo rubbed his eyes, trying to keep himself awake enough to understand what the others were now speaking about, but to no avail. He felt his eyes close, and before he knew it, he had fallen asleep in the white boat.

He didn’t wake up until he heard the thunder.

Eduardo’s eyes snapped open as someone fell over the top of him, almost crushing him in the process. He tried to stand, but felt the boat rock too hard to even stand properly, so he resorted to crouching for the moment. Edd, Matt and Tom were arguing at the front as Tom attempted to steer the boat back to where they had came from & Matt trying to stand up in the rocking boat. Mark was in a similar position to Eduardo, though he was getting drenched from the overlapping waves as he attempted to keep his book dry. Eduardo made an attempt to stand again, making his way over to his neighbours to see what they were arguing about. Before he could hear what they were saying, a sudden slap from Matt caused Eduardo to slam into the side of the boat… and fall overboard.

Now, Eduardo was a decent swimmer, and he knew this quite well. But between the chilling water, the violent waves, his neighbour’s lack of owning life-jackets for all of them and the fatigue of just being woken up, Eduardo was beginning to struggle quite a lot. He heard someone yell out his name, but couldn’t tell who it was. His struggle to stay afloat finally disappeared after a large wave overtook him, causing him to go under.

At first, he tried to reach back up to the surface, however Eduardo’s fatigue began to take over, resulting in him slowly beginning to tire from struggling so much. He had heard that drowning wasn’t all that bad, if you didn’t struggle that was, and it was becoming obvious that he wouldn’t be able to get above the water in time. The last of his air rushed out of his lungs, and the only thing Eduardo could do was wait for his death.

And that’s exactly what he did.

==========

Jon had always loved storms. The way they looked under the water was magnificent, and the accompanying sounds of thunder was like music to the young merman’s ears. It was a shame that nobody else seemed to enjoy the storms like he did. They were all too focused on other things like hunting down food or attacking each other mercilessly.

Perched on a medium-sized rock, Jon closed his eyes, letting the thunder fill his ears. Another thing he liked about them was that they stopped him from focusing on everything else around him. Whenever a storm came, he could just relax. There was no need to think about being cast out, or about how he was going to get his next meal, or what others currently thought about him. No, he could just focus on the loud but beautiful storm.

A whirring sound made Jon open his eyes. As his clear-blue eyes traveled towards the surface, they widened as they landed on a figure not too far away. There was someone in the water. And travelling away from it was what seemed to be some sort of large, white object being pounded by waves- a boat. The person must have fallen out of the boat just then, as evidenced by the way they were struggling. 

Jon would have screamed with excitement at that moment, if not in shock at what was going on. Humans were essentially gods to mermaids- even though they lived for far less longer, humans could walk, they could go on land for as long as they wanted, and they had souls, things that most mermaids craved to have for themselves. And, of course, they could turn mermaids into humans themselves, which was something Jon had wanted for all of his life.

The young merman snapped out of his thoughts as soon as he saw the human’s struggling stop. He quickly took off, reaching the dying human in record time. Jon didn’t hesitate to pull the human to the surface- thanks to humans being almost weightless, it was a very small effort even for the small and weak Jon to pull the human up above the waves.

As soon as he had secured the human above the surface, he began to panic. Now what? He had no idea how to deal with humans. It was rare for mermaids to even see humans, let alone pull them out of the surface. The only story about it Jon had ever heard of was just a myth, and even then it had ended with the poor mermaid dying because of her love for him.

But Jon did know one thing. There was an island not too far away from where they were now. And since the boat had disappeared from sight, there wasn’t a chance Jon would be able to pull the human all the way to it. So, Jon began to make his way towards the island, being careful not to let the human’s head drop below the water.

After almost an hour, Jon had finally reached the island. He knew this place well; he had visited it numerous times over his short lifespan, and knew that it contained fresh water, which was something he definitely knew that humans needed. As he reached the shore, he pushed the human up onto the sand (He quickly learnt that no, humans were not weightless after all), far enough away that the waves would not reach him, even during high tide. The only problem now was the rain, which resorted in Jon pushing the human further up the beach, until he was under the cover of four trees also on the beach.

Jon felt himself fidget as he sat next to the human. The human (Jon took a guess and thought that the human was male, based on his looks) was shivering like mad, and Jon swore that he was going blue in some places. A thought entered Jon’s mind, and he quickly placed a webbed hand over the man’s chest, feeling for a heartbeat. To Jon’s relief, there was one there- a slow one, but still, there was one.

Feeling satisfied with knowing that the man was alive, Jon began to make his way back to the water. He’d visit the man in the morning, when the storm would have died out. After all, he had just saved the guy’s life.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact before you begin- This whole fic took up 30 pages on Google Docs

The early rays of the morning reached the sea, waking Jon from his slumber on a rock. Groaning from the early and rude awakening, Jon reluctantly got up, beginning his search for the endless traps that he had laid out nearby. That was another thing that made him odd compared to other mermaids- he didn’t have the heart to straight-up kill his food.

As he scoured the sea floor, he began to think, an odd feeling rushing over him. He was forgetting something, he was sure of it. The feeling of forgetfulness stubbornly refused to leave as he reached a few of the traps, and grabbed the now-dead fish from them. Jon stared at the fish, lost in thought. He was beginning to wonder if humans ate fish as well.

_Wait._

The forgetful feeling disappeared as Jon realised what he had forgotten. The human! He had completely forgotten about how he had left a goddamn human on an island during a heavy storm. Anxiety began to rush over him. For all he knew, that guy could be _dead_. Jon quickly rushed off, almost dropping his fish in the rush. He didn’t want to be responsible for another death, especially one of a human.

Jon reached the island much quicker than the afternoon before, arriving barely half an hour later. To his great relief, the man was still there, still lying under the shade of the trees. At first, Jon stayed in the water, examining the man from afar. He didn’t seem to be in much trouble, and he looked a lot better than he did when Jon had first found him. But still, there was a chance that something else was wrong. After all, humans were quite fragile, especially when compared to mermaids. Following a small conflict with himself over whether to check on him or not, Jon began to pull himself up on the beach. It wouldn’t hurt just to make sure he was okay, right?

Jon sat himself down next to the man, finally getting a chance to fully look at him. He was pretty surprised, to say the least. All the drawings, paintings and sculptures he had ever seen of humans displayed them as either tall, muscular, pale men or frail young women with long hair. This man though… he didn’t fit either description. Sure, he did seem to be a bit muscular, but even then it was much less noticeable than what Jon had seen. His dark hair was filled with sand, and looked quite dry, possibly from the salt water. His clothes were quite rumpled and still looked a bit wet, and he had a small mustache growing above his lip. He was also quite a bit darker than what Jon had expected; he had looked quite pale when the merman had found him, but now Jon noticed that his skin was a beautiful caramel colour.

A twitch and mumble from the man made Jon jump. He was conscious and could possibly wake up at any time, and Jon had nowhere to hide. He was pretty far up the beach, so if the man woke up, he’d be screwed. He couldn’t just leave the poor guy here though; Jon had heard stories of humans who attempted to swim away from islands and ended up drowning, or being killed by other creatures in the sea. And besides, maybe he wouldn’t be completely scared by Jon’s lack of human features. He had also heard that some humans were quite fearless of pretty much everything.

And so Jon sat beside the man, waiting for him to awaken from his rough slumber. The sun began to rise higher over them, warming Jon up and causing the man beside him to move around in his sleep. As it became obvious that the man still wasn’t going to wake up for some time, Jon began to eat the fish he had caught, sneaking glances over to the side whenever he could. He couldn’t keep his eyes off the human lying next to him, but with good reason- he was quite an attractive guy after all, and Jon was quickly becoming infatuated with him. A small cloud of nervousness began to form in his head at that thought. This guy probably had dozens of human girls going after him, and based on what he had heard about what humans were like, he was probably with one of those girls already.

He was so involved in his thoughts that he almost didn’t hear the man wake up.

==========

The first thing Eduardo did when he woke up was heave his guts out on the beach.  
He felt himself shudder as the sea water mixed with bile burnt his throat. Everything hurt- his eyes stung from the salt that was still in them, his whole body felt uncomfortable and his mouth was almost completely dry. His main thought though was how he was not dead yet. He was sure that he had felt the air leave his lungs and had died. And yet here he was, on a beach, noticeably breathing and not fucking dead.

Eduardo rolled over to sit down, wincing at the pain that shot through his body. He wasn’t sure if he would be able to walk yet; his legs felt weak even when sitting down, and he didn’t want to risk trying to get up yet, let alone trying to find his friend and neighbours. He didn’t even know if they were alive, but considering they were all in a boat, they probably were. Eduardo shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair, trying to get rid of the sand that had settled into his hair the night before.

“Hey, be careful with all that sand!”

Eduardo froze up. He was not alone.  
Slowly, he turned towards his left, and saw someone else sitting there with him. He seemed pretty average at first glance- his hair was a plain light brown and he had exceptionally pretty blue eyes. But as Eduardo focused more on the guy sitting next to him, he began to notice more things. His skin, while quite a bit pale, had a strange blue tint to it, and he had fins on his lower arms. His hands seemed to be webbed as well, and there were a pair of closed gills on the side of his neck. However, they were nothing compared to the long, sparkling blue tail in replace of legs that the person (merman?) had.

Yep. Eduardo was most definitely dead.

“Oh, shit…” Eduardo winced, a headache beginning to form in his head. “No fucking way.”  
“What?” The merman tilted his head in confusion at Eduardo’s words.  
“I’m dead, aren’t I?” Eduardo let out a small laugh. “I’m fucking dead. There’s no goddamn way I lived through that.”  
The merman look even more confused than before. “Huh? You’re not dead! At least I don’t think so. I did save you from drowning after all.”  
Eduardo rested a hand over his chest, only to feel a strong heartbeat there. Well, he was alive after all.

Great. He had been saved by a slightly-attractive mermaid with the same amount of brain cells as a tree. This was some _The Little Mermaid_ bullshit forming right here. 

“Are you alright?” Eduardo groaned, rubbing his head as the merman continued to talk to him.  
“M’fine.” Eduardo silently wished that the merman would just leave already. He was already starting to irritate the other man greatly.  
“Oh! Well then, I should introduce myself,” Eduardo managed to turn sideways to properly face the merman, who seemed quite happy. “My name’s Jon. And you are?”  
Eduardo had to hold back an urge to laugh. _Jon?_ He certainly wasn’t expecting a merman to have a name so plain as that.  
“Eduardo.” Jon’s eyes seemed to grow wider at the sound of that name, before giving a smile to the other man.  
“Eduardo… that’s a pretty name.”  
“Uh, thanks.” For some reason, the compliment made him feel a bit awkward, which was odd, considering Eduardo was used to receiving such remarks. An uneasy silence hung in the air around them, before Jon spoke up again.

“Well, there’s some fresh water somewhere nearby. You need that, right?”  
Eduardo controlled the urge to roll his eyes at the other boy. “Yeah, I guess.” If he was to be honest, he really needed some water in his system right now.

Eduardo struggled to get up, but managed to steady himself and begin walking further into the island. Hopefully that god forsaken merman would be gone by the time he got back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter is a bit angsty so be prepared.
> 
> Also to the person who bookmarked this- god bless you :')


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, I am very sorry about not updating. Long story short, I'm not coping well atm.
> 
> Also!!!!!!!!! There's a homophobic slur towards the end of the first part. Just wanted to let you know just in case you don't like it.

At first, Eduardo refused to go back to the beach. He was almost completely convinced that the merman was a figment of his imagination, caused by the heat and dehydration. But whenever he looked back at the beach, Jon still sat there, always greeting him with a sharp-toothed smile. He finally gave up after one day, deciding that Jon was simply not going to leave the area for some time. And besides, Eduardo could use a bit of company on this island. He didn’t want to turn into a fucked-up, anti-social mess by the time actual people found him.

Eduardo didn’t speak as he sat down next to the merman, who was examining some sort of object in his webbed hands. He noticed that the object Jon was looking at was a coconut, which had probably fallen from one of the trees nearby. He seemed to have a mild interest in it, staring at it as if it was the first time he had ever seen one of the round fruits.

“Do you humans eat these?” Jon’s gaze moved from the coconut to Eduardo, as he began turning the round fruit in his hands.  
“Yeah, sometimes.” Eduardo’s stomach rumbled at the thought of the food, and Jon passed the coconut to him, as if he was reading his mind.  
“What do they taste like?” Eduardo took quick notice that the husk was already gone, probably pulled off by Jon. He looked around for a flat surface, finding a sharp rock nearby. He reached over to grab it.  
“Kinda shitty, if I’m going to be honest.” Smashing the coconut on the rock, Eduardo peeled it apart, revealing the water and food inside. He passed one half to Jon, who took it with surprise.

Eduardo took a sip of the coconut water, refusing to spit the putrid stuff back out. He watched as Jon took a sip of the water as well, his face scrunching up at the taste. Eduardo began to laugh as Jon shook his head rapidly.

“You guys DRINK this stuff?!” Jon passed the fruit back to Eduardo, shivering. “That has to be one of the worst things I have ever had!”  
Eduardo laughed harder. “We don’t drink it that often, only if we have to. Like now.” Eduardo took another sip from his half, silently wishing that he was eating anything but this.

“Anyways, since I’m almost 100% sure that you’re not a figment of my brain, I wanna ask you a few things.” Jon turned to face Eduardo, a curious expression on his face.  
“Like what…?”  
“Well, first of all, do you guys have a monarchy? Because people sure as hell like saying you do.”  
Jon’s tail tapped against the sand, like one’s foot would tap against the ground when thinking. “Well, we do, but it’s different depending on the region. Like, the head of our royal family is King Lucha, but there’s like 5 other kingdoms that I can remember.”  
“Right…” Eduardo frowned. All those movies may have been right after all. He quickly finished off the coconut water as he thought of another question. “What else is interesting about you guys? Like, do you have some weird rules or anything about speaking to humans?”  
“Oh!” Jon giggled, making Eduardo’s cheeks feel just the slightest bit warmer. “Well, not really. You guys are pretty much gods to us. Like, you guys get to walk on land, you can make us human and do all sorts of stuff that we can only dream to do! Heaps of mermaids can only dream of becoming human. Plus, it’s illegal to kill a human. I think.”

Eduardo’s eyes widened on that last statement. “Wait. You guys don’t _kill_ each other, right?”  
Jon’s eyes shifted to the right nervously, as if he had said something he shouldn’t have. “Half of us don’t make it past 10 years old because they get killed by other mermaids.”  
“Oh. Shit.” _Jeez, they’re definitely a bunch of murderous fucks._ This piece of information did give Eduardo an idea though.  
“Have _you_ killed anyone at all?”  
Based on Jon’s expression, he had asked a very wrong question.  
“No.”  
Eduardo raised an eyebrow. “Are you absolutely sure?”  
“Yes. I’m sure.” Jon seemed to becoming more agitated, but Eduardo ignored it.  
“Okay, no offense, but I’m pretty sure you didn’t go through your whole life being a perfect little angel who never hurt anyone-”  
“I said NO, EDUARDO!”

The strong harshness that had erupted from the seemingly happy merman made Eduardo jump in surprise. He instantly dropped the subject, turning towards the sea. It was eerily silent between the pair, the only sounds coming from the sea and Eduardo eating from the coconut.

“I was 13.”  
Eduardo perked up to the sound on Jon’s voice. He turned back around, listening as Jon simply stared at the ground in front of him.

“You know, pretty much all mermaids kill at some point in their life, and it’s seen as some ‘great honor’. But back then, I refused to. I honestly didn’t care if it’d upset my parents. I was just a natural pacifist, I guess,” Jon flicked at the sand beside him, his eyes only showing sadness and guilt. “Until that day, I only used my judgement to get out of situations. But he had to open his stupid, freaking mouth.”  
Jon turned to face Eduardo, his eyes almost threatening to spill tears. “Do you know what he called me? A fag. A fucking fag. A-And he just kept going, and I guess I got too angry o-or something, and-” Jon choked back a sob, but Eduardo didn’t need to hear the end of the sentence to understand.  
“You killed him.” The nod from Jon only confirmed Eduardo’s claim. Eduardo’s eyes shifted nervously. He had never been good at comforting others, and now it was coming to bite him in the ass. All he could really think of was to pull the merman into a hug. He wouldn’t usually do it, but this was the only thing he could think to do in this situation.

“Hey, dude, it’s alright.” Eduardo winced as Jon dug his unusually-sharp nails into the other man’s back as they both hugged. The only sound that came out of the other was a small sniffle, and the two sat there, a soothing atmosphere settling over them.

==========

Despite obviously being weaker than most his age, Jon wasn’t one to cry. His negative emotions usually came out in the form of silence, no matter how upsetting or damaging the situation was. In fact, he couldn’t even remember the last time he had properly cried. So he didn’t expect to be crying right now, let alone in the arms of an attractive human.

Jon’s sobs turned into sniffles, as he rested in the comfort of Eduardo’s arms. His hug was… comforting. Jon wasn’t sure whether all humans gave out such nice hugs or if it was just Eduardo, but it certainly put Jon in a much better mood.

Jon forced himself away from Eduardo after a while, rubbing his raw red eyes. There was some sticky, red liquid on the tips of Jon’s fingernails, but he ignored it, turning to look at Eduardo.

“If you want to, you can ask me some stuff too.” Eduardo poked at the sand, his eyes looking back up to see Jon’s reaction.  
“Really?!” Jon smiled back. He had so many questions to ask Eduardo that he wasn’t sure if he could answer all of them. Plus, it’d take his mind off of what had just happened.  
“Yeah, go ahead. I don’t have anything better to do, anyways.”  
Jon thought to himself, thinking of a question to ask, before he decided on a question he had been thinking of just yesterday. “Do you guys eat fish?”  
Eduardo’s brow creased in confusion. “Uh, yeah, of course we do. We just don’t eat it raw, except for my brother, but he’s weird enough already.”  
Jon’s eyes widened. “You have a brother?”  
Eduardo nodded. “An older one. He lives in Spain.”

Jon nodded to himself. He knew where Spain was- the Aneris region was around there, though he had never visited the place himself. But he was more focused on the ‘older brother’ part of the answer. “How much older…?”  
Eduardo frowned. “Well he’s 29, so about 2 years. Why are you even asking?”  
“Just wanted to know,” _Thank god_. That meant that Eduardo wasn’t too much older than himself. “Uh… What do you guys do for fun?”  
“Depends,” Eduardo lied down on the sand, causing Jon to have to look down at him. “Mark reads. Tom plays the bass or something. I draw. It really just depends on the person.”  
“Drawing?” Jon’s eyes seemed to shine brighter at the word. “Like as in painting?”  
“Yep. But I’ve gotten a bit rusty at it, since I stopped practicing.” Jon began to wonder of Eduardo’s paintings were as extravagant as the ones that the merman had seen before.  
“Can you paint for me now?” Eduardo looked surprised, and shook his head.  
“What? No! You need a bunch of stuff to start painting properly- brushes, a canvas, paints. And I have none of that stuff here right now.”  
“Oh…” Jon sighed, turning his head to rest his chin on his tail. He didn’t know where to get any of that stuff, since painting wasn’t exactly a common pastime for mermaids. Still, he closed his eyes, and smiled. The thought of Eduardo painting something like what Jon had seen was very pleasant.

“I think they would look very nice.” Jon turned his head, opening his eyes to look at his companion. To his surprise, there seemed to be a small tint of pink forming on the man’s cheeks. He gave Jon a smile.

“Th… Thank you.” Jon’s heart fluttered, and he gave the other a large grin.  
“You’re welcome!” Jon went back to thinking of more questions to ask. “Um, do you guys like mermaids at all? Or are we just scary to you?”  
Eduardo let out a sharp laugh. “Ha! You guys have _no idea_. There’s so much stuff about you guys that it’s ridiculous. Hell, pretty much everyone has seen _The Little Mermaid_ or heard about the pirates who chased after mermaids and drowned. I guess they’re considered pretty, but then again, they all just look like us with tails. That’s it.”

“Oh.” Jon bit his lip, idly tapping his fingers on his tail. There, Jon noticed the sticky red stuff again. It had dried up now, leaving it less sticky than before, and Jon stared at it with curiosity. Where on Earth had that come from?

“Hey Duardy, do you have any idea what this is?” Jon held up his hand to show Eduardo, but the other man was staring directly at Jon, looking both confused and red-faced.  
“What did you just call me?”  
“Oh, I thought I should give you a nickname. ‘Eduardo’ sounds a bit too long, don’t you think?” Jon let out a small huff, wishing that Eduardo would hurry up and look at his hand.  
“I guess.” Eduardo’s cheeks went a more noticeable red before his eyes widened in alarm at Jon’s hand. “Wait, what the fuck.”  
“What?” Jon looked back at his hand. “It’s not bad, right?”  
“Jon, that’s fucking _blood_.”  
“Blood?” Jon’s face went white. He had forgotten that humans didn’t have the same dark green blood as they did.

“You must’ve cut me when you dug your goddamn fingers into my back.” Jon slid a bit closer to Eduardo, looking behind to see his back. There were two small dark stains where Jon had placed his hands earlier. He turned back to face Eduardo.  
“I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to!” Jon’s hands raced to his head, holding it in panic. Jon was so much stronger compared to the human; he could have killed Eduardo! He was so stupid for not thinking of that.  
“Jesus christ, it’s not gonna kill me Jon,” Jon looked up in surprise as Eduardo flicked his hand, as if to brush it off “I’ll live.”

Jon’s hands slowly went back to his sides. Huh. Maybe humans wern’t as fragile as he had expected.  
“Are you sure?” Jon asked.  
“Are you kidding? I almost drowned two days ago. This is nothing compared to that shit.”

Jon smiled, turning back to look at the sea. His smile only turned into a grin as he felt Eduardo close the gap between them, positioning himself next to him, and they both watched the sea in the midday sun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will be more light-hearted trust me


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so surprised at how much you guys love this????? Like I was not expecting this many people to enjoy it, but thank you all <333

“Did you know that mermaids usually live for 500 years?”  
Jon ducked back down into the water, so only his bright blue eyes could be seen. After 4 days of being here, the island had started to get boring, so he and Eduardo had created their own game- Eduardo would ask a random question, and Jon would have to answer. If he got it correct, Eduardo would have to answer any question Jon had for him. If he got it wrong, Jon would have to be the one to answer a question. So far today, Eduardo was winning.

“Are you serious?” Eduardo raised an eyebrow, sitting on the island right in front of Jon. Jon’s head came back up from the water, grinning.  
“Yep. My great-great-gran lived until she was 560.”  
“I guess that makes you really young?” Eduardo was playing with the hot grains of sand on the beach. Jon nodded.  
“Yeah.” Jon flicked at the water, only narrowly missing Eduardo’s feet.  
“So…. do you guys, like, breed young too?”  
“Hey! You can’t ask that yet. You need to ask me something first.” Jon stuck his tongue out at Eduardo in a joking matter. Eduardo chuckled in response, his laugh causing Jon’s heart to race.

“Right, right..." Jon waited in anticipation for Eduardo to say the question. “Do you remember the name of the fruit you ate two days ago?”  
Jon’s eyes narrowed in thought, as he struggled to remember the name. He still remembered the disgusting taste of it ( _How did humans even make themselves eat that stuff?_ ), but the name had seemed to disappear from his memory. Suddenly, a word snaked its way into Jon’s memory, and he was sure that he had the answer.  
“A coconut?” Based on Eduardo’s reaction, Jon was right.  
“Goddamnit…” Eduardo sighed at his defeat. “Alright, what do you want to ask?”

Jon thought to himself. He honestly wasn’t sure what to ask- he didn’t have any important questions that he could think of. But, he did want to tell Eduardo a story. And he could probably sneak that into a question.

“Have you ever heard of ‘ _The Story of Edlen_ ’?” Jon was already smiling at the thought of that story.  
Eduardo’s eyebrows creased in confusion. “What?”  
“It’s a story that my parents used to read to me. It’s super-old, but it’s still a good story.” Jon could remember when his parents would sit him down and they would all read it together. It was a comforting memory for him.  
“You want to tell me it, don’t you?” Jon nodded at Eduardo’s question. Eduardo sighed. “Fine. Tell me it.”  
Jon smiled, as he began to recite the story that he had learnt off by heart:

' _Once upon a time, there was a kingdom in the bottom of the sea. In the kingdom there was a small village, and in there lived Edlen, a young mermaid. She was the fairest in the entire village, the only one who could look almost human._

_Now, near the undersea kingdom was another kingdom on the surface. This kingdom had a king, who was looking for a suitable wife to be his queen. Many of the female mermaids wished to be his queen, but none of them looked human enough to convince the man to fall for them._

_One day, Edlen visited the kingdom above, when she saw the king walking on the beach. She instantly fell in love with the king, and began making conversation with him. The king however had no idea that Edlen was a mermaid; he thought she was a human swimming in the sea._

_They both agreed to meet up every day, and they successfully did. Edlen was hoping for the king to fall in love with her too, and turn her human so she could become queen. Unknown to Edlen, the king was in love with a human woman, and wanted to make her queen._

_One day, the king realised he was falling in love with Edlen. Puzzled by these feelings, he decided to stop visiting her, so he could focus on the woman he was going to marry. Edlen however did not know this, and so was going to visit him the next day like always. But then she grew legs._

_Thanks to the king’s love for her, Edlen was turning into a human. The pain for her tail to split into legs was unbearable, but Edlen suffered through the pain for the king. She could no longer breathe under the water, and forced her way up to the surface, but when she got there, the king was with the other woman. He ignored Edlen’s cries for help as he passed her, and Edlen began to struggle to swim. Eventually, she sunk to the bottom of the sea, where she drowned, full of grief and pain._ ’

Jon noticed that he had closed his eyes during that story, and when he opened them, he saw Eduardo staring at him.  
“That’s some messed up shit. Not even Hans Christian Andersen was that messed up.”  
“Who?”  
Eduardo shook his head. “Nevermind. But seriously, I was not expecting that.”  
Jon shrugged. “Nobody takes it too seriously anymore. It’s just an old story that parents used to tell kids to avoid them from going to the surface. But that was before you guys were considered ‘gods’.” Jon omitted the fact that he still took that story very seriously.

A silence fell over them, as they both processed the story that had been told. It would’ve gone on forever, if Eduardo didn’t break it.

==========

Eduardo thought he was going crazy. Not because the only contact he had had with anyone over the past four days was a merman with a habit for asking stupid questions, but because was beginning to think that he was actually falling for this guy.

He didn’t exactly know why he felt like this. Despite his many flirtatious interactions with others his age, Eduardo had only ever dated two people- some guy back in high school and Laurel, a girl who broke up with him almost two years ago. He never really took most romantic situations seriously either (especially after that terrible break-up with Laurel), so to even start falling for someone was just absurd in his mind.  
The story he had just heard only made Eduardo feel more confused and troubled than before. Of course he didn’t believe it- stories were just stories, and weren’t supposed to be taken seriously. But there was one part of the story that seemed… off. At least, to Eduardo it seemed off. And that was because of one comment that Jon had made the first time they had properly met.

Brushing aside the thoughts of romance, he decided to focus on the comment in particular.

“Jon, I gotta ask you something about that story of yours.” Jon looked up from his spot in the water, giving Eduardo a curious look.  
“What is it?” Eduardo silently cursed whatever parent gave Jon his beautiful, blue eyes. He sighed.  
“How the hell did Edlen turn into a human exactly? Was it some ‘true love’ stuff or what? Because the story sure did a hell of a bad job at explaining it.”  
Jon sighed. “I thought you’d ask that. It’s kind of complicated though.”  
“I honestly couldn’t care less.” Eduardo raised an eyebrow, urging for Jon to continue. The merman sighed again.

“To summarise, all mermaids have a soulmate. Usually it’s another mermaid, but sometimes their soulmate is a human. Which I guess could be good, if you thought about it,” Jon flicked droplets of water towards Eduardo’s feet, his eyes glued to the water. “But anyways, most mermaids who fall in love with a human die lonely, because they can’t love anyone else. And, well, most humans wouldn’t fall for a mermaid if they saw us.”  
Jon stopped flicking at the water, though Eduardo noticed that he looked noticeably sad. “If a human falls in love with a mermaid that loves them back, then the mermaid turns into a human. But those are few and far inbetween. Most of the time, humans don’t even know we exist, and the ones that do know ignore us. So in the story, the human Edlen fell for loved two people- Edlen herself, and someone else. And, well, he chose the other girl.”

Eduardo wasn’t sure why Jon looked so upset, but nodded along. His thoughts however, were racing. Humans turning mermaids into humans? That was pretty confusing if you thought about it. Still, he brushed it off to think of later.  
“You never know. There could be people out there who have a thing for fish people.”  
Jon giggled, causing the romantic thoughts from before to enter Eduardo’s head again. “Really?”  
“Trust me, there’s a lot of weird people out there. There’s most certainly someone who dreams of fucking a fish.”  
“Ew!” Jon laughed, causing Eduardo to laugh along with him. Eduardo’s laugh was something that people back home rarely heard, so it was weird even for him to hear it so frequently. But still, it was nice to laugh alongside someone.

Eduardo felt his face heat up, and his hand instantly flew up to his face. The man instantly winced at the contact. , _Fuck_. His face felt like it had been burnt from spending the past 4 days in the sun. He probably shouldn’t have slapped his face like that either.

“Duardy? Are you alright?” Eduardo tensed up at that nickname. He still wasn’t used to being called that by Jon.  
“Yeah, I’m just burnt. Nothing too bad.” Eduardo was relieved that he had fallen off that boat in long sleeves and long pants. At least it was only his face being destroyed by the sun and not his entire body.  
“That explains why your face is so red then.” Jon’s comment made Eduardo look up. He attempted to give Jon a glare, but was instead still wincing at the burns on his face.  
“Mhm. Right.” Eduardo brushed off Jon’s comment. He couldn’t be bothered to actually make a decent comment. Jon’s face softened at Eduardo’s reaction.  
“Are you sure that you’re okay?”  
“Yeah, it’s just stupid burns. Probably should have stayed in the shade.” Jon still seemed to look rather concerned, but nodded.  
“I thought you could only get burnt from fires…” Jon seemed a bit confused, making Eduardo shake his head.  
“Mostly. But other things can burn you. Like the sun. Or boiling water. Or someone throwing you a good insult. But mostly the first two.”  
“Ohh.” Jon nodded in understanding.  
“But anyways, back to what we were doing,” Eduardo idly tapped his fingers on his knees. “Tell me- how long do humans on average live for?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The only reason the story is there is because I'm reading a whole fairy tale compilation book and wanted something like that in there lmaO
> 
> Also our boy Eduardo is in denial someone help him


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I keep saying this but I'm so happy that y'all are enjoying this :'^)

Eduardo sat along the beach, the early morning sun desperately trying to break through the grey clouds that currently filled the sky. It was one of the few moments that Eduardo was alone on the island; Jon was out collecting fish for the two of them to eat, and would probably be back soon. Now that he was alone, Eduardo could be left with his thoughts in peace.

He began to draw something in the sand with a stick he had found nearby. Day 6 had reared its ugly head to the man, and he was honestly starting to get worried. He knew that it could take up to months to find people lost at sea, but still, he wasn’t that far away from land… At least, he thought that. He didn’t even know if people were actually searching for him. It was probably why he was getting so attached to Jon recently- after all, the merman could be the last person that Eduardo could ever have contact with.

As the lines in the sand multiplied, Eduardo’s thoughts moved to one of the many things Jon had talked about. Humans turning mermaids into humans. Out of everything that the merman had spoken about, that was the thing that stuck out to Eduardo. It wasn’t even the whole concept that Eduardo was thinking about. It was more of Jon’s reaction to the whole thing. He had been oddly bashful when he had explained it, as if he was trying to hide something. Eduardo hadn’t really thought too much about it, but now he was getting a bit suspicious.

After thinking about it for a short while, it was almost entirely possible that Jon could have a crush on Eduardo. And Eduardo thought that it was completely laughable, at the very least. Once again, he couldn’t see how Jon could possibly like him. Eduardo wasn’t exactly the greatest person in the world, and based on how he had been treated in the past, he wasn’t exactly boyfriend material to most people. And besides, mermaids had soulmates. The probability of Jon even having a human soulmate was probably one in a billion.

Eduardo felt something drop onto his shoulder. He stopped drawing, looking up just in time to have a big drop of water hit him in the eye. He growled slightly, rubbing his eye clean of the liquid. _Just what I needed. A rainstorm to hit this place again_. He was growing increasingly worried about Jon though. The merman still wasn’t back from his trip to grab food, and he never took this long while he was out. A small splash from the water in front of him grabbed his attention.

 _Speak of the fucking devil_. As soon as that thought crossed his mind, Jon’s head peeked out from the water, giving Eduardo a large grin. Eduardo smiled back, an odd feeling pumping through his chest. Jon held up a handful of different types of fish, but not before Eduardo got an idea. As the rain began to fall harder, he got up from the beach, walked over to Jon, and scooped him up bridal-style.

“I swear to god, it’ll take you 5 hours to get up this bloody beach if you try to crawl up it.” Though his voice seemed quite normal, Eduardo avoided Jon’s eyes, instead searching the beach. The rain was starting to come down now, and it wouldn’t be too long until it actually began pouring on the two of them. After deciding that there was almost no proper shelter here, Eduardo’s mind thought to the dense trees that were near the fresh pool further inside the island. It should provide a better place for them to stay, at least for now.

To Eduardo’s relief, it didn’t take long to arrive at the freshwater sight- Jon was surprisingly light, so the other didn’t struggle to hold him for so long, and despite the leaves that continuously hit Eduardo’s burnt face, the rest of the place wasn’t too hard to navigate through. By the time they had reached the pool of water, the two could hear the rain pouring down on the trees and into the water, though most of the places around were free of the rain.

Though it was tempting to just throw Jon into the water, Eduardo instead placed the merman on the edge of the bank. He sat down next to Jon, the only sounds at first coming from the rain. Eduardo closed his eyes at the sound, before almost immediately opening them again. His mind, for some reason, was thinking back to the afternoon almost a week ago, when the storm had hit the boat and thrown him overboard. Even though he was perfectly fine on land and the fact that nothing could harm him at that moment, he was still thinking of that dreadful afternoon. His heart was already racing just imagining it, and with the rain hitting both the trees and lake so hard, it was only amplifying the sound, making Eduardo even more jittery thinking about it.

He felt something touch his hand. Eduardo snapped out of his thoughts and looked down, to see that Jon had placed one of his hands over Eduardo’s shaking one. He looked up at the merman, noticing that he looked uneasy.

“You’re shaking…” Eduardo felt Jon’s thumb beginning to run calming circles over the top of his hand. “Are you alright?”  
Eduardo sighed shakily. “I was just thinking about-”  
“The storm.” Eduardo nodded as Jon finished his sentence for him. Eduardo closed his eyes again, instead trying to focus on something else other than the rail that was coming down. He needed something that was more heartening to think of, and that wouldn’t cause him to let him freak out over this stupid storm.

He felt a faint smile cross his face as his mind thought up of Jon.

==========

The rain only continued to fall even harder into the late morning. The trees couldn’t shield the two from all the rain, so it wasn’t long until both were getting drenched by the oncoming raindrops. Jon didn’t see too much of a problem with it (After all, he was somebody that lived in the sea), however Eduardo seemed to be less relaxed than the merman. Despite Jon’s comfort, he was still shaking quite a bit, and it was honestly beginning to worry Jon. Eduardo didn’t seem like the type to get so worked up like this, and it only made Jon more determined to calm him down.

Jon watched as a smile crossed Eduardo’s lips again. He was obviously thinking of something that was reassuring to him, which made Jon happier in response. That was another thing that Jon loved about the human- Eduardo had one of the loveliest smiles that the merman had ever seen. Jon could feel his heart racing just thinking about it.

A loud boom of thunder reached the two men. Jon smiled as a crack of lightning lit up the sky. His smile was short-lived though, as Eduardo’s hand shook harder from the storm. Jon wasn’t sure what to do; he was never one to be afraid of storms, and he honestly didn’t know how badly the storm-drowning incident had affected Eduardo.  
Something brushed against his tail. Jon’s eyes turned to land on the fish that he had gotten earlier that morning. He had already fixed it up half of them enough so that it only needed to be cooked for Eduardo, while the other half were just for himself. Jon tapped his free hand against his tail, frowning. He often felt comforted by food, so perhaps Eduardo was the same too.

“Duardy, you don’t mind fish, right?” Eduardo turned to look at Jon.  
“That’s pretty much exclusively what I’ve been eating for almost a week. I’m pretty sure I don’t care for it.”  
“Oh, good!” Jon threw the first half to Eduardo, who moved his hand to catch them.  
“Jon. These aren’t cooked.” Eduardo gave a confused look to Jon as he held the fish.  
“And?” Jon shrugged as he bit into one of the remaining fish.  
“I will get fucking salmonella from this,” Jon didn’t look up from his meal as Eduardo complained. “And we can’t start a fire here. So I can’t eat this.”  
“Isn’t salmonella that thing where humans get sick from their food?” Jon’s eyes took a break from staring at his food and began to look around for more food.  
“Yes. I’ve gotten it before. And it really does want to make you kill yourself.”  
“Oh…” Jon’s eyes lit up when he spotted a bush nearby. Sure, it was drenched in water, but there were dozens upon dozens of small fruits hanging off of it.

“I think I found something for you.” Jon pointed at the bush nearby, and turned to look at Eduardo. Another crack of thunder boomed above them, making Eduardo jump again, before quickly regaining composure.  
“You okay?” Jon asked, before Eduardo brushed him of.  
“Y-Yeah, don’t worry.” He got up to walk to the bush, leaving Jon to watch him as he inspected, and then grabbed the food. More lightning lit up the place, and Jon looked up to watch. Rain hit his face in drops, and he laughed, as more rain fell onto his face. He barely even looked to the side to see Eduardo watching him. His eyes finally tore away from the storm as he heard his friend speak behind him.

“Are you gonna keep looking at the sky or will I have to push you in the lake to stop you myself?” Jon’s gaze broke from the sky, turning to face Eduardo, who was beginning to sit down next to him.  
“I was just admiring the view.” Jon shrugged, watching as Eduardo began to eat some of the blue-coloured berries he had taken. Jon remembered once reading about those types of foods in one of the many books about human culture. He specifically remembered a type poisonous to humans, one that could kill them. As he was releasing the connection, he immediately alerted Eduardo.

“Eduardo, those aren’t nightshade… right?” Eduardo made a face after hearing Jon’s question.  
“What? Jon, I’m not that much of an idiot to eat that crap. Plus, I was eating these when I first came here. What else did you think I lived off of before I went down to the beach?” As if to prove his point, he ate a few more of the fruits, and held out three of them to Jon. “Want some?”  
Jon cautiously took the berries, examining them. He had never really seen a fruit like these, except in pictures- they were a bright blue colour, and seemed a lot smaller than Jon had expected.

“They’re blueberries,” Eduardo interrupted Jon’s thoughts, as if he knew that the merman was thinking. “Trust me, they’re heaps better than the coconuts.”  
Jon nibbled on one of the berries. They were much nicer than the mess that was the coconuts; in fact, they tasted rather sweet. Jon happily finished off the remaining berries he had been given, before turning back to Eduardo.

“Do you happen to have more with you?” Jon’s heart raced header at the sound of Eduardo chuckling.  
“I’m not getting up for anymore. Besides, I think I got all of them.”  
“Clearly you didn’t.” Jon pointed out the bush, where there were still more berries hanging from the bush. Eduardo sighed.  
“Uhg, fine. But only because I love you.”

Jon’s heart practically stopped when he heard that last line. As he felt his face heat up, he ducked down, choosing to peer at the water instead. That was, until he felt the side of his face being hit with blueberries. He giggled, picking up one of the fallen berries and throwing it back at Eduardo.

Neither of them noticed that the lightning and thunder had ended.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How shall this series of denials and love end??????
> 
> Well we'll find out soon enough ;)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE LAST CHAPTER HOOOOOOOO BOY

_“But only because I love you”_

Jon’s tail flipped against the water in annoyance as he thought of that sentence over and over again. Despite it being said almost a day ago, the statement still hadn’t left Jon’s head. He wasn’t sure if it was his love for Eduardo taking control, but he was convinced that it wasn’t just some friendly banter.

A gust of wind made Jon shake, and reach for a bundle of cloth that had washed up on the beach earlier. Wrapping himself in the thin and slightly-damp material, he shut his eyes, feeling warmth make its way to his cheeks. His small ‘crush’ on Eduardo had evolved into something that he was struggling to push down. And with about a week of the human being on this island, Jon’s time with him was running out _fast_.

But who was to say if Eduardo even liked him back? One thing that Eduardo had constantly avoided talking about with Jon was his love life. There was still a high chance that Eduardo had someone back at home, waiting for him to return. That was one of the very few things that Jon hated about humans- they weren't bound by ‘soulmates’, so they could love whoever they pleased. And if Eduardo was his soulmate (which was what he was expecting), then Jon might as well be dead right now.

Jon felt a tear slip down his cheek, and quickly wiped it away. No, he shouldn’t be thinking so negatively. There still was a chance that Eduardo was single and into mermen. A slim chance, but still a chance. Jon couldn’t help but smile at that thought. It was comforting, at least to him.

The beach began to light up with the early rays of the dawn. Water rushed up around the end of Jon’s tail, the light from the sun flickering off of the scales. Jon watched as the sky lit up with streaks of blue, pink and orange. Early morning above the surface was so beautiful. Perhaps he should come up and watch it more often.

A rustle from behind made Jon jump. He turned around, expecting Eduardo, but only noticed a small creature (lizard? Jon couldn’t remember the name) scuttering through the bushes. It stopped to look at Jon, curiously. Jon smiled back, holding out one of his hands, while the other kept the cloth huddled around himself.

“Come here, you.” The creature slowly made its way over, climbing onto Jon’s hand. Jon lifted his hand carefully, making sure that the thing on it wasn’t afraid of him.  
“You’re a lizard, aren’t you?” The thing was flicking its head around, a small, forked tongue gently brushing against Jon’s webbed hand. Jon giggled.  
“I don’t see how Duardy doesn’t like you guys,” Jon thought back to the first time he had seen the small things, and when Eduardo had practically cursed them to hell and back. “You’re just too cute!” The lizard continued to flick its head and tongue around, while Jon lightly petted the top of its head. Despite what Eduardo had said about these lizards, this one didn’t seem to be scared at all- in fact, it seemed rather comfortable with staying in the palm of Jon’s hand.

Something made Jon wince. A sharp pain had decided to hit the bottom of his tail. Jon quickly pulled his tail away from the water, assuming that it was little fish who had decided to nibble on the bottom of it (That tended to be a more common problem than one would expect). As the pain hit him once again, Jon frowned. It wasn’t fish coming to make a meal out of his fish tail. Maybe it was just a cramp. He did tend to get those often as well.

A bigger wave of pain hit him again, almost causing him to drop the tiny lizard. He moved his hand with the lizard on it to the sand, letting the tiny animal scutter away from Jon. Now that he wasn’t completely distracted by it, he looked to see what was causing his tail so much pain. To his surprise, there was nothing there. Another shot of the pain went through his tail, making him yelp. This wasn’t normal. He didn’t know anything that could cause this.

Soon, more pricks of pain followed, though not all were from his tail- he could feel shots of it through his arms and torso as well. Jon bit his lip to stop himself from screaming, before jumping at even more pain. Placing his hand to his lip, he winced as he looked at the dark green liquid. _Uhg_. He had bit himself hard enough to bleed.  
When the next pain wave came, he couldn’t help but scream.

==========

Eduardo was awoken by something crawling over his hand. He opened one of his eyes to see a small lizard making its way over the man’s hand. Eduardo jumped up, shaking his hand, just to make sure that it had disappeared entirely. He grumbled as it scuttered away into the bushes.

Now that he was wide awake, he stood up, almost tripping over his own feet. The sound of small bird screeches coming from the lake indicated that Eduardo wasn’t the only one who was up at the moment. He looked up to the sky, noticing that the dawn was just disappearing, being replaced by a bright blue sky. It was oddly peaceful.

Eduardo looked back at the lake to see a pair of birds, swimming side by side. For some reason, the sight of them reminded him of Jon. Eduardo’s mind traveled back to the day before, when he had made that stupid remark. He didn’t know _why_ he had suddenly decided to say it. In hindsight, it was incredibly dumb for him to just outright say it to Jon. The merman probably didn’t even love him back.

 _Love_. That word had been lingering in his mind for days now. Despite the fact that he had tried to avoid even thinking of it, he was really beginning to think that he actually loved Jon, especially after his fourth day here. Something about Jon was alluring to him, but he couldn’t really tell what it was. Maybe it was the fact that he was a merman. Or that he seemed to have so many interesting stories to tell. Or that he was an incredibly beautiful person.

Eduardo closed his eyes and sighed. He was sure of it. He was most definitely in love with a fucking merman.  
Eduardo listened to the sounds of the birds in the water, and his whole body began to relax. These feelings would probably go away once he was rescued. Then he wouldn’t have to ever think about Jon again. He forced himself to sit down, only listening to the sounds coming from around him.

That was, until he heard someone scream.

Eduardo recognized the voice instantly. He took off for the beach, running into trees almost constantly as he tried to get there. Jon was in trouble- Eduardo had never heard the merman cry out so helplessly, and it only made Eduardo more worried than he should have been. He seemed to take hours to reach the beach, and now his face was aching from hitting all of those branches and trees. He stopped in his tracks as he noticed where the scream had come from.

It was Jon… but then it wasn’t. As he turned around, Eduardo noticed the slight differences from the merman- his skin was a fair colour instead of having the blue tint that Eduardo had grown so used to, his hands were no longer webbed, and there were a pair of feet sticking out of the cloth wrapped around Jon’s body.

Eduardo’s breath hitched at that last sight. He was _human_. That only meant one thing.

The man couldn’t help but grin as he saw Jon. He ran over to Jon, and the other tried to stand up to greet him, but there was no need to, as Eduardo scooped Jon up into his arms as soon as he reached him. Tears spilled from both of them, as they embraced tightly. Jon pulled away before launching into a kiss, with Eduardo quickly returning it. Eduardo felt fingers running through his dark hair, and he pulled Jon even closer, closing any gap that was already between them. Finally, Jon pulled away, eyes red-rimmed from crying.

“I love you so much.” Jon’s voice came out as weak, but full of happiness. Eduardo laughed.  
“I love you too, Jon.” Eduardo wasn’t used to saying those words, but it was the truth. He was, to tell the truth, completely in love with Jon.

Jon pulled Eduardo into another kiss, the other not refusing it at all. It was a perfect moment for them; in fact, it was arguably the happiest that either had ever been in their lives. They pulled apart again, giggling at each other before embracing. Nothing could ruin it for them.

Well, maybe except for the boat heading towards the island.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank y'all who enjoyed this :')


End file.
